🎙️ Voice is AI-generated. Inconsistencies may occur.
Connor Zilisch may have taken a lighthearted jab at his team boss, Dale Earnhardt Jr., with the way he celebrated his NASCAR Xfinity Series race win at Pocono. The race marked the pair’s first race together as driver and crew chief.
Zilisch’s second victory of the season arrived after he capitalized on a caution on Lap 71 and stayed in the battle for the top spot. Just as Justin Allgaier and Chase Elliott brought their elbows out, Zilisch was quick to take advantage of the situation.
Though Jesse Love took the lead, Zilisch ensured he got a strong restart and overtook Love in just four laps to win the race. The 18-year-old executed the race calmly and showed no signs of haste.
Meg Oliphant/Getty Images
While this marked a great race day for Zilisch and Dale Jr., who was serving as the interim crew chief for the 18-year-old driver, Zilisch’s post-race celebrations would have likely annoyed Dale Jr.
The former NASCAR Cup Series driver has admitted on his Dale Jr. Download podcast that he isn’t a fan of drivers emerging from the car’s roof hatch to celebrate. However, Zilisch did just that. Was this a way of poking fun at his new boss? Only Zilisch knows that.
Speaking after his Xfinity win, Zilisch addressed his race preparations and admitted that a driver must trust the simulator. He said:
“There’s a lot that goes on behind the scenes. I’ve done a lot to prepare myself for this. I never feel like I show up to a racetrack and I’m like, ‘man, I’m nervous. I don’t know what I’m going to do.’ I always have a plan showing up to a new racetrack. I showed that today. I went out for practice and I was third on the first lap never seeing the place before.
“It’s not easy to do that. I was going wide open down into [turn] 1, and I was like, ‘wow, this is fast.’ You kind of just have to trust the simulator and trust your notes and what you’ve seen and watched. I try to give myself an idea of what I’m going to see when I get to the racetrack without having to overthink about it.”
He added:
“I’ve folded more times than I’ve been able to count this year, so I wouldn’t say I’m perfect. It’s just a matter of preparing and not letting any situation be too big. Those restarts can be chaotic and nerve-wracking, especially when you’re up there at the front racing for a win. But I treat any race the same – I run my next best corner and hope that what I do works out for me. Sometimes it doesn’t and sometimes it does. Today, it worked out.”